Mark opened his map and looked over the trails leading northwest toward the cave, west to the stream, and south to the ruined camp. Of all the marked points of interest, the clay pit came to mind first.
The clay deposit had changed how he operated, bringing pottery, plates, and glasses to the outpost. He also had a trade agreement to provide clay, so that became the next path he would make.
Mark spent the next hour building a short, clean trail northwest to the clay pit. It did not take long, but it would make a difference. He had noticed that people moved faster on the maintained trails than they did off-trail.
When the path was complete, he filled his inventory with clay. He wished he had one of the carts Lakeside used; without one, it would take three or four trips to bring back everything he wanted. But the cart would have to wait.
It was getting late, and he was getting anxious that he would not level today. When he finally got back to camp, he started pulling out the clay and adding it to the inventory system. Just as he pulled the last of it out and the system gave him credit for the clay delivery, he finally hit Level 8.
[Level Up]
Character: Mark
Level: 8
Stat Points: +5
Class Advancement Available
◈ ◈ ◈
Mark assigned 2 points each to strength and agility and the last point to vitality. He then selected class advancement.
Strength: 12Agility: 12Vitality: 15Intelligence: 18Perception: 22
[Class Qualification Review Complete]
Available Classes:
Frontier StewardTrapperExpedition Pathfinder◈ ◈ ◈
He ruled out Trapper and looked closer at the other two. Expedition Pathfinder focused on discovery, navigation, route optimization, and regional mapping. It looked interesting, but then he opened Frontier Steward.
[Frontier Steward]
A Frontier Steward develops, stabilizes, and expands frontier settlements and connected territory.
Primary Focus:
InfrastructureSettlement GrowthRegional IntegrationAdaptive SurvivalLeadership Support◈ ◈ ◈
He reread both choices, then made his decision.
[Class Selected]
Frontier Steward
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[Frontier Steward — Level 1]
Class Focus:
InfrastructureSettlement GrowthRegional IntegrationAdaptive SurvivalLeadership Support◈ ◈ ◈
Current Active Growth Opportunities:
Expand maintained pathwaysImprove settlement infrastructureIncrease regional connectivitySupport settlement specializationStabilize frontier territory◈ ◈ ◈
Mark was about to open up his class and look at the growth opportunities to decide which he would work on first when another message appeared.
[Regional Disturbance Detected]
Unstable activity detected within connected territory.
Location: Southern Forest Edge
Priority Assessment: Moderate
◈ ◈ ◈
That was a new type of message: Regional Disturbance. Mark guessed it must be related to the class he just got. He opened his map, and the disturbance was clearly labeled.
Mark looked toward the sunset. It would be dark soon. Should he figure this out tomorrow or go now? He reread the message. The priority was moderate. Well, it was not low, which he would have waited on. He would get home after dark, but he decided if the system was going to prompt him, it had a reason.
He let Dale and Tom know that he was going to look into something and would be home after dark, so they should not worry about him. Then he set off toward the area indicated. He was able to follow his trail south for most of the way, so the trip was shorter than it could be.
When he got there, he was surprised at what he found. There were three people, and they were being surrounded by two forest stalkers that had not yet attacked but were circling them. There were two men and a woman. The two men were waving sticks in the direction of the stalkers, and the woman was crying.
Mark quickly pulled out his bow and shot the closest one. He was able to kill it with one shot. His aim had come a long way since his early days. The other stalker turned toward him at the cry of the first. When it saw that he was armed and ready for a fight, it turned tail and ran away.
Mark hurried over as the sun set and lit a torch. The three were unharmed, but they all spoke at once, asking where they were, how he had killed the creature, and what had happened to their home.
Mark then realized the disturbance he had been sent to resolve involved the new arrivals. He quickly calmed them down and explained the situation as quickly as he could. He then pulled out two more torches and handed them to the group.
The group kept looking around, waiting, expecting to be attacked again. More importantly, he assured them that he could keep them safe and that there was a place that was safe for the night if they would follow him.
The three of them followed him back to camp. By the time they arrived, everyone had gone to sleep. Mark woke Dale up and asked him to get some food for their guests and help him talk to this group.
They talked well into the night with the group. They found out they were a family and that they had just shown up to this place. They had been eating breakfast at their farm, and the next thing they knew, they were here. They received the survival system message, and before they could come to the realization of where they were, one of the forest stalkers had shown up.
The father, Elias, and the son, Finn, had found some sticks and were keeping the stalker back as they tried to run through the forest, and that was when the second one showed up. They had thought they were going to die until Mark showed up and killed one and ran the other off.
The mother’s name was Mara, and she was more outspoken than the other two. She kept asking how they could get home and wake from this dream. Slowly, she began to accept that they could not.
Mark and Dale promised to keep them safe. The family asked if they could stay here with them, as they had no place to go. Mark assured them they would be safe and could stay there and invited them to join the outpost, which they did.
Dale gave them all some food and juice, and then they gave them the last two empty A-frames to sleep in. By this point, it was really late, and the three newcomers went off to bed.
Dale finally turned to Mark and asked, “How did you find them?”
“I finally leveled up and got my class, Frontier Steward. The next thing I know, the system put me to work using my new class with a system message about a regional disturbance.”
“Well, I guess we will talk about that and our new outpost members when everyone wakes up in the morning.” With that, Dale went back to bed.
Mark climbed into bed, wondering what else his class would change in his life.